Mark, have a close look at the LERX where it meets the wing leading edge. Looks like it takes on the leading edge profile on the Revell kit, the real thing seems a lot more subtle. Should be easy to fix with a bit of superglue and sanding.
Any chance you can show some pics of the exhaust area of the kit?
Cheers,
Marcel

Really love the way your engines worked out. I need to use that liquid mask technique as well. Incredible how short the A/B sections of those RD-33's are, btw.
Sean, I am having a really hard time deciding on my next project, between the A-6E, F-14D and Mig-29C. I have actually started tinkering with the 29 but the decals that I will need to enable me to do mine will likely only be available from mid-year, I am always hesitant to launch into a project if I don't have all the required odds and ends safely inventoried.
Cheers,
Marcel

Ok, we're synched up... I think it's pretty straightforward to just sand that to be a little smoother. Glad you pointed it out, I would have missed it until after glueing the tail on, at which point a correction will be harder.
Guys, does anybody know of the Litening pods are still carried by the 18th? I think they have been replaced by Sniper but I am wondering if I should hand the beautifully done Eduard Litening on this build, would be super easy to do.
Cheers,
Marcel

Chuck, why don't you start an F-5F in parallel ... then you can do one in black and the other in the tiger scheme...
Scott, a Block 52 is a really good choice for this kit, you got the right legs on her and with the KASL exhaust and Zacto small intake you'll be in really good shape. How lucky is your doc!
Bryan, big thanks for the heads-up on that, I hadn't noticed. Are you referring to the very angular transition from the front aerodynamic section to the main straight section--if so I can see what you are talking about. Ironically, I had a spare base due to my NSAWC "A" conversion but wasted it when I converted the KASL parabrake tail to an ordinary rear base section. Anyhow, I think that transition can be smoothed out with a bit of sanding but maybe I'm not understanding what you are referring to?
Cheers,
Marcel

I should really be moving on to something else but I just can’t resist tackling my third F-16. I started on the Academy two-seater back when I was doing my F-16A and I have been building some subassemblies here and there as made synergistic sense with the other F-16’s. For example, the canopy is polished, Future-dipped and good to go. The (Tamiya) tanks are done with a first coat of paint on them, the ACMI pod is entirely complete, the AIM-9CATM is almost done, the Zacto intake is already painted white inside and the Aires wheel well is ready to be dropped in. In short, I think completing this model will take less than half the time it will take me to do the Legendary Grumman Product project I have lined up next.
Here is the exact aircraft I will be doing (pic has free for use rights):
I will be using the AFV Club F-16B kit, which is essentially the Academy kit with all the plastic that you would get with the various variants of that plus some resin parts. The most important parts for what will be an F-16D Block 30 are the correct wheels required for a Block 30 and also the non-bulged main landing gear doors. I will use the heavyweight legs when I should be using lightweight main gear but I honestly find it almost impossible to recognize the difference. More important is that I don’t need to use the bulged main gear doors of the kit, which look off from far away (more on that later).
I will be using the Two Bobs Arctic Aggressor sheet together with some custom serial number decals and a second red/yellow “6” from the spares box and that should be about it as far as turning this into a Block30 Aggressor.
The Tamiya F-16 kit is generally superior to the Academy kit but the Academy kit has some advantages. And of course it is the only two-seater in town. Here is my summary of the ADVANTAGES of the Academy kit (roughly in order of importance):
1. Zacto makes beautiful small and big mouth intakes for the Academy F-16. These are drop-and-go and do away with the tedious seam-filling required for the Tamiya kit.
2. The Aires wheel well fits absolutely perfectly into this kit. I would speculate that Aires designed the set for the Academy kit and then only modified the little panel between the bays for the Tamiya kit. I would strongly advise against using the Aires set on the Tamiya kit, the fit is poor requiring a chain reaction of modifications.
3. The wing leading edge is molded as part of the wing. For the Tamiya kit, I find that the separately produced leading edge is difficult to glue in such that the gap, especially around the hinges, is perfectly neat and consistent. No such worries on the Academy kit.
4. Academy added some nice detail in places where Tamiya didn’t provide any, e.g. on the underside of the center wing pylons.
And here are some of what I consider to be must-fix problems of the Academy kit. I am sure there are plenty of additional inaccuracies on the kit but these are the ones that I consider to be too glaring to ignore:
1. The kit intake is spaced too close to the fuselage. Apparently the intake is also misshapen but I have a hard time recognizing that. This is a must-fix issue in my book but fortunately Zacto has turned vice into virtue with his fantastic intakes.
2. The Academy gun muzzle has the slots vertical instead of being slightly slanted back. To my eye this makes the kit look wrong from across the room because this error is right in the focal point of the model. You can address this problem a few different ways and Academy supplies two muzzles so you can mess around a little to see what works. I ended up throwing money at the problem and bought the respective sprue from the Tamiya kit, the Tamiya muzzle fits into the Academy kit almost perfectly. Going the Tamiya route will also ensure a consistent look as my various F-16’s are displayed together.
3. The Academy wingtip and outer wing launch rails (LAU-129) are far too skinny. Simple fix is to use some Tamiya LAU-129’s from the spares box.
4. The bulged main gear doors look way too bulged. I didn’t need these anyway but I think these could just be sanded down to get a better look.
And with that, I am launching this thread! More to follow…
Cheers,
Marcel